When gender diversity is incorporated at all levels of industry, profit, productivity, and quality of service will increase.
Promoting gender diversity and inclusion has been on Nigeria’s agenda for decades yet the country is unable to earn a strong track record in this area. Despite having a significant population of women in the labour force, Nigeria cannot harness the potential human resource benefits that this opportunity presents. An advantage that can be geared toward enhancing productivity and national development. At a time when the adequate representation of women in the labour market would have proven to be highly beneficial to the economy, gender disparities between women and men could never be starker.
In a recent report by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF), Nigeria ranked 133rd out of 149th for achieving gender parity. This is against the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring “equal rights and opportunity and eliminating the many root causes of discrimination that still curtail women’s rights in private and public spheres” that the country is a party to.
Low participation in the extractive sector
The deplorable state of gender disparity in the labour force has also been reinforced by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI) in its latest report. According to the report, women only represent 6.8 percent of the workforce in the solid minerals sector for 2019. The report which accounted for women’s participation across 63 companies in the country indicated that there was a significant gap in the proportion of male to female employees under the sector. Of the 63 companies covered in the report, 11 had no female employees.
Nigeria’s total labour force in 2019 stood at 80.3 million, the solid minerals sector accounted for 18,545 employees with just 294 women employed in that year. The extractive sector is a male-dominated industry in the country which limits the involvement of women and reduces their access to economic and social development and as such violates their human rights.
Oil and gas sector for all?
The gender disparity in the oil and gas sector is glaring. There are fewer women in the oil industry than in any other major industry as they account for less than a quarter of employees in the industry. Women make up just 15% of the world’s oil and gas force and in Nigeria, it is even lower.
Data by Catalyst, a research institute that seeks to advance women’s participation in leadership accentuated that gender imbalance increases in the oil sector with seniority. There is an asymmetrical relationship between ranks and the level of women’s participation. Entry-level positions are comprised of 27% women, 17% are at senior and executive-level positions and just 1% of oil and gas CEOs are women.
This is due to the lack of women in technical and field roles. These roles are mostly taken by men. Women often occupy business support roles such as human resources, information technology with less representation across manufacturing, engineering, and research. Education, access to capital, and gender bias are key factors responsible for this.
Why women matter
While the gender gap in employment sectors varies from sector to sector, there is much work to be done. Ensuring gender parity in the workforce should be prioritized not just for the adequate representation of women but also for the benefits it provides. When gender diversity is incorporated at all levels of industry, profit, productivity, and quality of service will increase. Mckinsey, a US-based consultancy firm in a study showed that a company in the top quartile for gender diversity is 15% more likely to have financial returns that are beyond their national industry median.
To get rid of gender biases in the workforce, there is a need to adopt a holistic approach. Recently, The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote called for women’s empowerment in the workforce, noting that it is of great importance. He pointed out that the rate of gender diversity is measly especially in the oil sector.
Wabote emphasized the need to take active steps that will promote diversity and educated women to aspire for higher positions of leadership. “Our markets today are run by women but unfortunately, when we talk about technical and engineering skills, they get scared. We need to encourage them and let them know that there are opportunities in the oil and gas sector and part of our efforts is to give women the opportunity to make an input. “This is an effort to reach out to the stakeholders to see how the women who are already in the sector can reach out and make for more inclusiveness for other women to come in,” he said.
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